Decision: Accepted
Objective
SAT I (breakdown): SUPERSCORE: 1920 (CR 620, M 660, WR 640)
ACT (breakdown): HIGHEST COMPOSITE: 30 . Best sub-scores were 32 Eng, 30 Math, 30 Read, 31 Sci, 24 Wr (eeeek).
SAT II: Spanish w Listening 680, Math II 620
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0, weighted 4.29.
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 12 of 444
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Env Sci- 4, AP US History- 3, AP Spanish Lang/Culture- 5, AP EngComp- 5
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Gov, AP Macro-econ, AP Calc AB, AP Physics C, English IV, Digital Design/Animation, Link Crew, Advanced Band, Marching Band
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Hispanic Recognition Program, AP Scholar w Honors
Subjective
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): MUSIC: Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble (1st chair alto sax), Marching Band, Competition Drumline, Men’s Acapella Club. SPORTS: Varsity Water Polo, Varsity Swim. CLUBS: Sister City Club, CSF (secretary), Interact Club. OTHER: City Youth Commission, Link Crew (commissioner), volunteering.
Job/Work Experience: Bagger at local grocery store, valuable because I translated for other baggers who didn’t know Spanish.
Volunteer/Community service: 150ish hours: Volunteered for the school district energy department, Served and prepared food at Gilroy Garlic Festival (annual event that our town is known for, over 4,000 volunteers), did some math tutoring, gave saxophone lessons to middle schoolers.
Summer Activities: Travelled with a group of local HS students to our sister city in Japan to foster international relationships, stayed with host families. Also, my dad is a HS World History teacher and he leads educational tours to Europe, so I got to go a few times! Water polo practice during the summer every morning; Band camp in August; Lots of random community service.
Essays (rating 1-10, details): COMMON APP ESSAY: I would say 8/10. I talked about how I have perfect pitch and how it helped me excel in music at my school, and how I used it to help my friends with musical questions and such; ND EXCITES YOU ESSAY: I would say 9/10. I talked about how the architecture program will allow me to experience another culture during my junior year (Italy!!), and I described my excitement in joining the ND Marching Band!! (<<— Really though, I am s*****ng myself because I get to join that band); WHAT QUESTION FASCINATES YOU: I would say 10/10. I wonder if earthquakes will ever be predicted accurately. I talked about how in California, we always talk about earthquake preparedness, but we never actually know what to expect. I chose this topic because I figured it would set me apart from “What is life?” or “When will we cure cancer?”; SOCIAL MEDIA FOOTPRINT: Probably 9/10. I talked about this one picture on Instagram (@d.yaf … haha) from my exchange to Japan. The backstory is that we had done service projects in the village and had just had lunch with the mayor and city council, and I explained my digital footprint is more than just pictures, there’s a story and purpose behind every post.
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec: 10/10. She’s probably the sharpest teacher I’ve had. She is the woman who basically taught me how to write a home-run essay.
Counselor Rec: 7/10. Basically just a summary of my résumé, but it was my fault because I had spelled her email wrong when inviting her to the Common App, and she had to write it the week the app was due (Bless her, I am still grateful for her doing this).
Additional Rec (if used): 10/10. Spanish teacher who loved me. She talked about how I was eager to learn ahead of the material and I was determined to figure out the imperfect subjunctive verb tense.
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: Ohhhhhhh yes.
Intended Major: Architecture
State (if domestic applicant): California: a smaller, majority Hispanic community
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public 9-12
Ethnicity: Mexican, Yaqui Native American, Georgian, Armenian, English
Religion: Catholic
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: Like parents’ combined $ before taxes? About 150k. They’re teachers.
Hooks (legacy, URM, first generation college, etc.): Perfect pitch, world traveler
Reflection
Strengths: Definitely essays and extracurriculars, as well as attitude towards the school.
Weaknesses: Test scores. I was so scared because of my lower scores.
Why you think you were accepted: I believe I was accepted because of my involvement in my school/community and attitude towards service/faith/humanity. I told them what I was going to bring to their school through my essays. My GPA probably also helped me. Not a single B in high school.
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I was accepted to Cal Poly SLO (city and regional planning), and denied from UCLA (Civil Engineering). I’m waiting to hear back from UC Berkeley, USC, Stanford, Duke, Vandy.
General Comments: What I have learned from this entire stressful process is that colleges know we are more than just some stupid numbers. No, I don’t think I was accepted because of my ethnicity. No, it wasn’t because of my test scores. It was probably because of my essays and GPA. Don’t shoot yourself down because you don’t think your GPA or test scores are good enough!!
Most likely won’t go, as I received a likely letter from Cornell, but a great fallback school to have.